this country that say that it could lead to a catastrophic situation in afghanistan. mitch mcconnell, the leader of republicans and snap is a very quick, several weeks agojoe biden outlined his plan. he was quick to criticise. we have been a republican from south carolina, lindsey graham a couple of days ago suggesting that withdrawal of us troops could lead to terrorist groups regrouping as he phrased it, perhaps plucking another scenario similar to 9/11. so there is a lot of criticism on the other side there are plenty of people who would agree with joe are plenty of people who would agree withjoe biden and by default by agreeing with the former president as well and now is the most appropriate time for nato forces to pull out and leave it to the afghans to, in effect, decide their own pace and try to pull the country together. and try to pull the country together- and try to pull the country touether. ., ., ., ~ , ., together. for the moment, thank you, we are keeping together. f
provided our afghan partners with all the tools, let me emphasise, all the tools, training and equipment of any modern military. he provided advanced weaponry and we are going to continue to provide funding and equipment and we will ensure they have the capacity to maintain their air force. but, most critically, as i stressed in my meeting two weeks ago it to the president and chairman abdullah, afghan leaders have to come together and drive toward a future that the afghan people want and they deserve. in our meeting, i also assured him that us support for the people of afghanistan with the mbr. we will continue to provide civilian and humanitarian assistance including speaking out for the rights of women and girls. i intend to maintain our diplomatic presence in afghanistan and we are coordinating closely with the international partners in order to continue to secure the international airport. we are going to engage in a
together. for the moment, thank you, we are keeping a close together. for the moment, thank you, we are keeping a close eye together. for the moment, thank you, we are keeping a close eye out - together. for the moment, thank you, we are keeping a close eye out for- we are keeping a close eye out for joe biden as soon as he starts speaking you will see that here on outside source. this is notjust a theory impacting america and afghanistan, it is paying out for a number of other countries as well. one of them is the uk. earlier boris johnson announced all of its troops assigned to them nato defence alliance in afghanistan are returning home. this was earlier in parliament. i hope that no one will leap to the false conclusion that the withdrawal of our forces somehow means the end of britain s commitment to afghanistan. we are not about to turn away nor are we under any illusions about the perils of today s situation and what may lie ahead. 0ver a50 british soldiers have died in conf
let s continue our coverage ofjoe biden announcing that all us troops will be withdrawn from afghanistan in august, and in america s longest war. 90% of american troops have already left, and fighting between afghan troops and taliban fighters is escalating. let s bring you the bbc s chief international correspondent, lyse doucet, in kabul. you cover to the american deployment 20 years ago, you are now covering the americans confirming they are leaving. what are your thoughts as you listen tojoe biden? well, joe biden has a point, no one expected that, 20 years on, the united states and other nato armies would now be pulling out, and even more, nobody expected that afghanistan would look like this, most of all the generation of young educated afghans who came of age after the us led invasion in the
many of them were stationed at the bagram airbase the key command centre for anti taliban operations. at the peak of us involvement over 100,000 us and nato troops passed through it. by friday the troops were gone. according to afghan officials they left in the middle of the night deserting this huge compound and passing control of security to afghan forces. that was on friday, then on tuesday, the us said 90% of troops were gone. so the afghan military is now in sole charge of security across the country. the task is enormous and the taliban is gaining ground at rapid pace. injust over 2 months the taliban has taken at least 150 out of a21 districts across afghanistan. and they re moving from rural areas into major cities. yesterday the taliban launched its most brazen attack since the us stepped